“I’ve personally never heard as much gunfire on prior New Year’s Eves as I did Wednesday, but it
wasn’t unexpected since the media openly dared our populace to not engage in such foolish
activities.

“When will you and the rest of the media ever learn to not attempt to chastise the general
public without it resulting in just the opposite of what you were attempting to accomplish, or
perhaps this is what you were attempting to accomplish all along, like, ‘Please Brer Fox, don’t
throw me in the briar patch!’ ” wrote a Columbus reader.

“The media knowingly and willingly created a scenario where fools all across the city were
literally encouraged to fire weapons into the air largely because you all advised them it was a bad
thing to do. We and they already knew that, but all you did was figuratively slap the idiots in the
face and they took it as a dare. Shame on all of you in the media for pandering to their sort of
inane foolishness by irresponsible reporting.”

Irresponsible reporting?

You tell me: The Columbus Police Division asked the media to attend a news conference so that
police leadership could implore residents to refrain from the dangerous, foolish practice
of firing guns at midnight. In addition, police created a website, erected billboards and
distributed fliers to warn people of the dangers.

Journalists have two options: Ignore the request from police, or produce stories explaining the
dangers of the practice.

Curious about the reader’s allegation that “numerous bullet holes in rooftops all across the
city requiring costly repairs into the tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars” were reported,
one of our reporters contacted 16 roofing companies in town. Only two had ever — ever — seen
incidents of bullet holes in roofs, and both cases were years ago and not necessarily connected to
New Year’s celebrations.

The reader also said a bullet pierced a Columbus police car’s roof, but police told us that’s
not the case.

As former U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously said, “Everyone is entitled to his own
opinion, but not to his own facts.”

• • •

While the outcome of the Orange Bowl was less than Buckeyes fans had hoped for, our coverage of
the game apparently was a winner. We heard from readers who were delighted to find full coverage in
their Saturday editions.

We were able to do this because our colleagues who print and deliver the paper worked with us to
devise a game plan (pun intended) that got the papers out, with full coverage in every edition,
without late deliveries. It was a team effort (pun intended, again).

We did not, however, hold the presses to get the national championship game in all Tuesday
editions. While the majority of our readers received editions with coverage from the Florida
State-Auburn game, we didn’t want to risk late deliveries or the safety of newspaper carriers —
especially with temperatures hitting dangerous record lows.

• • •

From reader Meg Teaford: “Thanks to your staff for getting the paper to us on these frigid
mornings. It was right at the front door each morning and we appreciate that!”

The carriers did a great job for us all. Thanks for the kind words.

Benjamin J. Marrison is editor of The Dispatch.
You can read his blog at
dispatch.com/blogs.